Buffalo's Changing Winter

Buffalo, NY-- It's something we hear often, that these are the warmest winters we can remember and there's less snowfall. It's not hard to believe when last winter was the fourth warmest on record and was in second place for the least amount of snow on the ground since the 1940s.

Looking at winter snowfall data since 1943 there is a slight increase during the 70 year period. When you break down the meteorological winter months into December, January and February, it's December that's seeing an increase in temperatures and snowfall. January and February didn't change.

So one might ask why didn't the area get much snowfall last December or this year so far? Looking at snowfall over the past 70 years the amounts vary greatly year to year. December of 1995 saw 61 inches but the year before only got 7 inches.

So don't worry, there's always next year to make up for the most recent lack of snow.